Iran shows off Russian S-300 defence system on Army Day

DUBAI, April 17 (Reuters) - Iran showed off parts of its new
Russian S-300 missile defence system during National Army Day on
Sunday, where President Hassan Rouhani said the country's armed
forces were no threat to neighbouring countries.

Every year, Iran's armed forces hold parades across the
country to mark Army Day. In a ceremony in Tehran, broadcast
live on state television, trucks carrying the missiles drove
past a podium where Rouhani and military commanders were
standing. Soldiers also marched passed the podium and fighter
jets and bombers took part in an air display.

"The power of our armed forces is not aimed at any of our
neighbours ... Its purpose is to defend Islamic Iran and act as
an active deterrent," Rouhani was quoted as saying by the state
news agency IRNA, in a speech at the Army Day ceremony.

Russia delivered the first part of the S-300 missile defence
system to Iran last week, one of the most advanced systems of
its kind that can engage multiple aircraft and ballistic
missiles around 150 km (90 miles) away.

Russia has said it cancelled a contract to deliver S-300s to
Iran in 2010 under pressure from the West. President Vladimir
Putin lifted the ban in April 2015, after an interim agreement
that paved the way for July's full nuclear deal with Iran that
ended international sanctions.

Since then, Iran has upset the United States by carrying out
four ballistic missile tests, which the United States and its
European allies said were in defiance of the United Nations
resolution adopted in July.

Rouhani said on Sunday that during the nuclear talks Iranian
negotiators also aimed to maintain and boost the country's
military capabilities.

Iran has two armies, a regular one which operates as a
national defensive force, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps that was created after the Revolution to protect the
Islamic Republic against both internal and external adversaries.

The army has the biggest ground force in Iran and IRGC is in
control of growing arsenal of ballistic missiles.

In its first overseas operation since the Revolution, the
regular army said earlier this month that it had deployed some
of its special forces and commandos to Syria to help President
Bashar al-Assad in the civil war there.
(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin. Editing by Jane Merriman)